Some domestic electric appliances are provided with an automatic retractor apparatus for winding up the power supply cord. However, these prior art retractor apparatus cannot be directly adapted to a range of different appliances due to their reliance upon specific structure provided on the appliance. It will therefore be understood that there is a need for a modular apparatus, one that could be used, for instance, in all in the appliances in a manufacturer's product range. Such a modular device should be compact and inexpensive to manufacture.
Typically, slip rings of two different diameters are used to transmit electricity between the relatively fixed and rotating parts in an automatic retractor apparatus. However, the sliding contact in such connections is disadvantageous because of the resulting wear of the contacts and because it produces noise with can interfere with the proper performance of sensitive electrical circuits. It is an object of the present invention to address or substantially ameliorate the above disadvantages or more generally to provide an improved cord retractor apparatus.